Rachida Sobhi is employed as a police community support officer (PCSO) with the Metropolitan Police. In 2008 she applied to become a police constable. In the course of her application she had her fingerprints taken and this led to the discovery that she has a conviction for theft from a former employer dating back to…
The decision of the Employment Appeal Tribunal in Woodhouse v West North West Homes Leeds Ltd addresses the tricky question of whether there comes a point at which an employer can attempt to draw a line whan an employee raises a number of grievances and brings numerous claims. In his introduction HHJ Hand QC points…
Employment law is underpinned by contract law, the bedrock of the relationship between employer and employee. It is therefore not surprising that in the last few months there have been a number of cases turning on the construction of contractual documents. In Hay & others v Gilgrove Ltd the construction of a 1974 collective agreement…
It is worth noting that the Justice and Security Act 2013 which received Royal Assent on 25 April 2013 will extend the used of closed material procedures (already allowed in employment tribunals) to other civil proceedings, where a party may be required to disclose “sensitive material” and it is in the interests of the ‘fair…
It has been a busy month in terms of collective consultation disputes, serving to underline how tricky these obligations can sometimes be. First up is the reminder, in Shields Automotive Ltd v (1) Langdon (2) Brolly and AEI Cables Ltd v (1) GMB (2) Unite (3) Individual Claimants, that awards for breaches of the collective…
In May 2012 I reported the important decisions of the Supreme Court in Seldon v Clarkson Wright & Jakes and Homer v West Yorks Police. It has taken a while but an Employment Tribunal has now ruled in Seldon, on its remission from the Supreme Court, that a compulsory retirement age set out in the…
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has usefully confirmed for us in Lund v St Edmund’s School, Canterbury that in cases where an employee is dismissed for some other substantial reason (SOSR) which has some overlap with conduct then the Acas Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures should be adhered to. In this instance the…
Welcome to most readers and seen by many as long overdue is the Disclosure and Barring Service’s new Update Service which is stated to be one of the Government’s top priorities and came into force on 17 June 2013. As stated on the www.gov.uk website: ‘it will put individuals in greater control of their own…
The Government Equalities Office’s publication of a consultation on the scope of proposed regulations to bring in equal pay audits where a tribunal finds that an employer has breached equal pay legislation has re-opened the debate on whether these proposed regulations will promote a culture change with regard to the equal treatment of women or…